Great Record Labels: Document Records

captwhiffle said:
I'll admit to never having listened to this collection all the way through (it's on my list of to-listens), but I'll add this here for the curious, but charming little ditty, "I Wish I Was a Single Girl Again."

Kelly Harrell - Complete Recorded Works, Vol. 1 (1925-26) (1998)




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Thanks, Whiff. Harrell is an interesting rural artist of pallor but this collection is a lot for one sitting. Added to our Spotify playlist. May I suggest Rovin' Gambler?
 
While I love this label and have a lot I want, I'll highlight an artist I'm somewhat familiar with.

Sister Rosetta Tharpe - Complete Recorded Works 1938-1941

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Frankie "Half-Pint" Jaxon - Complete Recorded Works Vol. 2 (rec. 1929-1937)

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There was far more to pre-WWII black music than the blues. Frankie Jaxon from Montgomery, Alabama offers us the opportunity to enjoy the songster style as popularized in vaudeville and minstrel shows. However, there is nothing of the Uncle Tom about Frankie. In "Down Home In Kentucky", he slyly shows us around Louisville where "Mr. Charlie is still in the lead." The arrangements are jazzy, with Buster Bailey and the Harlem Hamfats backing up Jaxon's high pitched vocals. Small wonder, he worked as a female impersonator. Jaxon retired from recording in 1941 and went to work for the military.

Highly recommended, and now on our Spotify playlist.
 
Bumble Bee Sim - Complete Recorded Works Vol. 3 (rec. 1934-1935)


Georgia born Amos Easton is better known by his stage name, Bumble Bee Slim. His career spanned Georgia and Indiana, even a stint with the Ringling Brothers Circus before he landed in Chicago. There he was a key to the birth of the small combo Chicago Blues sound, both as a writer and a singer. These sides found him accompanied mostly by Jimmie Gordon's piano and Charlie McCoy on guitar. "Milk Cow Blues" was appropriated by Bob Wills and turned into "Brain Cloudy Blues", a Western Swing classic:


I linked this album individually above and added it to our Document Records playlist.
 
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Bill Gaither - Complete Recorded Works Vol. 5 (1940-1941)


Kentucky born Bill Gaither wrote and recorded regularly throughout the 1930's. He started as a protege of Leroy Carr and offered the same intimate piano blue style. This collection presents his last recordings, including a tribute to Carr. He was drafted into the Army 1941 and fought heroically in the South Pacific theater with the first African American unit deployed in a combat role.

Added to our Spotify playlist.
 
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The Harlem Hamfats - Complete Recorded Works vol. 4 (1938-1939)


This is one of my top favorite albums on the label. Long before Motown had the "Funk Brothers", Decca created the Harlem Hamfats as a studio group to back artists like Rosetta Howard and Frankie "Half-Pint" Jaxon. They made nearly 100 recordings under this name. They aren't blues at all but hot small combo jazz led by the trumpet of Herb Morand and the guitar of Kansas Joe McCoy.
 
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Various Artists - Memphis Sanctified Jug Bands (1928-1930)


Here is your chance to go back in time to Memphis during the Great Depression. It's a hot, humid August Sunday but the church is packed. For two hours or so, you are surrounded by the sheer joy of an enthusiastic congregation led by a hell fire and brimstone minister. The proceedings are enlivened by sing along gospel songs from an electrifying choir and even a jug band with brass. You go home to Sunday supper exhausted but inspired.

It's all here on this album. These sides were recorded for OKeh and Victor by Ralph Peer on various field recording trips. Music doesn't get any more authentic than this.
 
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Mary Johnson - Complete Recorded Works (1929-1936)


Mary is a true classic blues singer. She was so devoted to the genre that she even married Lonnie Johnson. Born in Yazoo City, Missisippi, Mary worked in St. Louis until the 40's. Her sides show a definite jazz influence both in the instrumentation and in her expressive vocals. She was a snappy dresser, too. :thumbsup:
 
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Merline Johnson - Complete Recorded Works Vol. 3 (1939-1940)


Merline, also known as "The Yas Yas Girl"*, fell into the twilight zone between blues and jazz. The earliest of these sides cut for Vocalion show fine jazz trumpet from Lee Collins and sax from Buster Bailey. Later, her sound became more hard-edged blues. Little is known about her life, although supposedly she was LaVern Baker's aunt.

*"Shake your shoulders
Shake ’em fast
If you can’t shake your shoulders
Shake your yas-yas-yas"
-Tampa Red
 
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Georgia White - Complete Recorded Works Vol. 3 (1937-1939)


Here are some of the more than 100 sides Georgia cut for Decca, most featuring fine guitar licks from the master, Lonnie Johnson. She would continue working in the clubs of Chicago long after WWII, where her recording career had begun with jazz clarinetist Jimmie Noone. Her warm, inviting vocal style shows why her records were so successful, even during the Depression.
 
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^Thanks, @axolotl. This is an unusual item from the vast Document catalog. Most of the releases consist of pre-war blues 78's. Sykes is in good voice despite his age on this college date. It's now on our Spotify playlist.
 
Bertha "Chippie" Hill - Complete Recorded Works (1925-1929)


Charleston, South Carolina native Bertha Hill is best known today for her vocals on several early Louis Armstrong sides. Those songs are here...but wait, there's more! Her short recorded career illustrates perfectly the emergence of blues from the jazz tradition during the Roaring Twenties. The earliest dates find her backed by trumpet (or cornet, if you will). Later she recorded with Georgia Tom, Leroy Carr, Scrapper Blackwell and other fine blues instrumentalists. Throughout these sessions, her understated, expressive style contrasts favorably with the earth-shaking vocals of her contemporary, Bessie Smith.

After raising seven children, Bertha somehow found the strength to resume her career after WWII with a jazz focus. Sadly, she was killed when she was run over by a car in Harlem in 1950.

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Jack Newman - Complete Recorded Works (1938)


This is an unusual entry in the vast Document Records catalog. It is actually mislabeled in that Jack Newman is but one of four artists featured here, the others being Frankie Jones, James Hall and Black Bottom McPhail. These 24 sides were all recorded in Chicago for Vocalion at a single marathon session on Thursday, May 26, 1938. Nothing is known about any of these artists but they are all fine purveyors of pre-war urban blues.
 
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Ojai Sam said:
Jack Newman - Complete Recorded Works (1938)


This is an unusual entry in the vast Document Records catalog. It is actually mislabeled in that Jack Newman is but one of four artists featured here, the others being Frankie Jones, James Hall and Black Bottom McPhail. These 24 sides were all recorded in Chicago for Vocalion at a single marathon session on Thursday, May 26, 1938. Nothing is known about any of these artists but they are all fine purveyors of pre-war urban blues.
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I wish my name was Black Bottom McPhail. :(

Is it time to change my moniker/persona? Stay tuned.
 
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